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June 24, 2012

My First Sea Turtle Nest!

I found my first sea turtle nest on our favorite beach! Ok, so I might not have actually discovered the crawl, or the nest for that matter, but I can still call it my first. I mean, I have never seen an actual sea turtle nest on the beach before...

It'd been a few weeks since I'd had my feet in the ocean, so we headed out to our favorite oceanfront park in Wilbur-by-the-Sea, just up the road from the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. Of course, Rob had to stop by the Little Boys' Room, so I made it to the beach first. It was a gloomy day, and we were there around 6 o'clock, so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves.

While I snapped some pictures and waited on Rob, I spotted a section of sand marked off with tape and cones. I'm sort of used to seeing cones on the beach, since you are allowed (in most places) in the Daytona area to park on the beach. The Winter Haven Park area is a no traffic beach, but there are still cones for the Beach Patrol areas. Anyway, these weren't Beach Patrol cones. I ran down to see it it was really what I hoped.

Cha-ching! A marked sea turtle nest!! I couldn't contain myself, I ran halfway up the boardwalk to Rob and started jumping up and down and hyperventilating. I couldn't regain composure, so I just drug him down to the beach. This nest wasn't exactly in the dunes (mere steps from the public beach walkover actually) so they had extra cones for added warning. See the little

Sea Turtle spray painted on the cone? I wish I knew the details, like if it was relocated or what type of turtle made the nest, but I'm just happy knowing there will be baby sea turtles on my beach soon!

We strolled the beach until rain drops began to chase us back to the walkover. I didn't think that trip to the beach could get much better...then on our way back, we spotted another nest! TWO sea turtle nests on our beach!

We noticed numbers on the markers and decided some of them were dates. One nest was found June 12th, the other June 20th. I hope we are lucky enough to see the babies when they hatch! Sea turtle nests can incubate for anywhere from 65 to 80 days, depending on the species, so I have some calculating to do! How exciting would it be to watch the babies make it to the ocean!!! I think I'd cry the whole time...I'm just like that.

According the the Volusia County Turtle Patrol, our county has 173 Loggerhead and 5 Leatherback nests so far! Woohoo! This ought to be an exciting season! I'm so glad we decided to hit the beach yesterday; I'm sure I'll annoy Rob every free day he has to return, especially since it's sea turtle season. At least it's the beach and not the mall, right babe? Right?